Vaccines save many lives

Bryan Alsip, For the Express-News

Published 4:25 pm, Thursday, October 6, 2016

Photo: Billy Smith II /Houston Chronicle

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Vaccines have prevented the deaths and horrible suffering of untold millions of children and adults around the world — the vast majority since the beginning of the 20th century. And the scientific evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates no direct correlation between vaccines and autism. less

Vaccines have prevented the deaths and horrible suffering of untold millions of children and adults around the world — the vast majority since the beginning of the 20th century. And the scientific evidence ... more

Photo: Billy Smith II /Houston Chronicle

Vaccines save many lives

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One in 5 Americans believe that immunizations cause autism and that vaccines fall into the category of a medical conspiracy contrived by physicians and governmental officials whose motives are purely suspect.

That was the conclusion of a study in JAMA Internal Medicine two years ago. These individuals share a distrust of science, not unlike those who are convinced the FDA is hiding homeopathic cures for cancer to protect drug company profits or that health officials know cellphones cause cancer but are doing nothing to stop it.

Astonishingly, the JAMA study found that half of the Americans surveyed hold one or more of these beliefs. People who embrace conspiracy theories are also more likely to base their health decisions on the opinions of friends and celebrities rather than a family doctor.

Some may counsel empathy for such beliefs, but when it comes to deadly diseases, conspiracy theories merely hinder rational debate.

In full disclosure, I have devoted my professional career to the public health of our community and our nation — first as a military physician, then as assistant director of the Metropolitan Health District, and currently as the chief medical officer of University Health System.

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I read of District Attorney Nico LaHood’s efforts to link vaccines and autism with dismay, but not surprise. Medicine is complex, and it can be confusing. We routinely hear news stories about research studies that contradict earlier ones and about a health care industry that seems too often to put profits ahead of patients.

But on this issue, there is absolutely no doubt. Vaccines are widely considered among the most important achievements of biomedical science and public health. They have prevented the deaths and horrible suffering of untold millions of children and adults around the world — the vast majority since the beginning of the 20th century. And the scientific evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates no direct correlation between vaccines and autism.

But vaccines do prevent illness and save lives. As recently as 1970, more than 8,400 Texans contracted rubella, an infection that causes birth defects in pregnancy. Last year there were two.

Consider measles, a disease once so common that virtually every child was infected. Measles can cause pneumonia, encephalitis and death. In 1958, there were 88,000 known cases in Texas. Last year there was one.

But not in 2013. That year, an outbreak linked to a North Texas church whose members were resistant to vaccination sickened 25 people — both young and old. Expect more of this in the future.

Bexar County is doing fairly well at vaccinating our youngest residents. At last count, more than 92 percent of local children had one or more doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine by age 35 months. That’s higher than for Texas and the nation as a whole.

The problem is that if this distrust of vaccines spreads like the illnesses they prevent, then outbreaks of diseases that cause real harm, such as measles, whooping cough, hepatitis and others, will sweep through our schools, day care centers and church camps as routinely as they did before. Our pediatric wards may once again be filled with young children gasping for air and fighting for life against conditions now rarely seen.

This reality is why we as physicians are committed to vaccination. It isn’t a conspiracy. It is the compassion that comes from a desire to heal the sick, prevent illness, and protect our children from completely unnecessary suffering and death. We must heed the prophetic words of George Santayana, who warned that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Bryan Alsip, M.D., is executive vice president and chief medical officer of University Health System.